Government's top priority to provide housing facilities to poor

Punjab Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Mian Shafqat Ali has said that 5,70,000 houses are needed every year but only 300,000 houses are being constructed in the country.
He said that private sector and government should work together to cope with the back-log so that housing facilities could be provided to the low income segments of the society. He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting of All Pakistan Contractors Associations and Real Estate Developers Council in his office, here today.
Provincial Minister said it is priority of the government to provide residential facilities to the low income people and for this purpose, government is desirous to fill in the gap between public and private sectors so that affordable houses could be constructed for low income people. He said the government would extend every possible help to encourage the private sector to minimise the back-log of houses. He said that government has launched several housing schemes on private-public partnership basis and facilities like loaning and land etc are also being provided to the private sector.
Mian Shafqat Ali said that the department has received the offer from a private construction company regarding construction of 5-marla plots of Jhelum at the rate of Rs 550/- per sq. ft. He said that this offer has not been finalised yet. He said that the tenders would be floated in this regard on web site of the department. He said that the facility of filing the tenders through e-mail would also be provided to the developers.
Later, Developers and Contractors while sharing their problems with the Minister told that developers should be registered for quality housing and only licensed contractors of Pakistan Engineering Council should be allowed construction. Chairman Builders and Developers Associations Naeem A. Khan, Chief Engineer Izhaar Construction Arif Khan, Secretary All Pakistan Contractors Associations Mohammad Yunas Khan, Chief Executive Zafarullah Khan, Chairman Federation of Punjab Contractors Welfare Associations Ishaq Khan, Chairman Suhail Lashari, Chief Executive Akbar Sheikh and other concerned officers were also present.